


They Gives Us Our Rights or We Gives Them a War

by aintweproudriff



Series: Author's Picks [4]
Category: Newsies (1992), Newsies - All Media Types, Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: F/F, M/M, Multi, This is just the plot of the musical but they are actually gay, some pretty serious transphobia, sorry about that
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-16
Updated: 2017-09-01
Packaged: 2018-12-16 00:23:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 13,288
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11817318
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aintweproudriff/pseuds/aintweproudriff
Summary: The GSTA fights back against transphobia and homophobia in their school.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I did get this idea from @crunchie_morris on tumblr, so go thank her for this!
> 
> (I'm sorry I'm so bad at titles and summaries lol)

David’s heart raced, and his breath hitched as he tried to swallow. He knew he never should have had that second coffee. Maybe he’d be a little calmer if he had just eaten normally. He stood in front of a door that- “no pressure,” he thought, -had every chance of changing his life. Well, not the door exactly, but rather the people he knew were behind it. 

For a second, he thought about turning back. He could get in his car and leave, if he wanted to. His mom and dad wouldn’t ask many questions, they believed he was staying after school to go to politics club. David had just decided to leave, and was tugging on the strap of his backpack, when he heard a cough behind him. 

“Going in?” asked the girl- no, boy- “making assumptions isn’t a great thing to do when trying to join a GSTA,” he chided himself -standing next to him. They raised their eyebrows, and David’s mind blanked. 

“Uh,” he took a deep breath in and made a choice. “Yeah. Yeah, I am.”

“Great!” they turned the doorknob, and David stepped through. 

Immediately he was assaulted with noise and people, all laughing and pushing each other. 

“Hey, Sniper!” one of them called, raising their hand and leaning up against a desk. 

“Hey, asshole,” the person who had led him in rolled their eyes, but good-naturedly walked over to sit with them. 

David looked around, trying desperately to recognize someone, maybe from a class he had with them, but to no avail. Even if he did share classes with some of these people, he never would have realized it.  
He took a seat closer to the door, in a desk that was just close enough to a group of people that he could be talked to, but far enough away that he wasn’t forcing himself onto anyone. 

The door opened, letting in a sliver of light and casting a shadow into the classroom, and David heard it slam again. Had he been concerned with looking like the coolest person in the room, he wouldn’t have looked at the person who walked through the door. He did look, because he was already sitting alone, and while he wanted to impress these people, he got the feeling that many of them were just as uncool as he was. 

A girl- “yes, making assumptions is bad, but she looks very feminine,” -walked into the classroom, clutching a notebook. She ran her thumb across the spine, before looking around and taking the seat directly next to David. 

Her shoulders rose and sank as she breathed in and out, apparently trying to gain her bearings amidst all the noise. Her fingers gently laid the notebook down on the desk, and she turned her head towards David as if she wanted to say something. 

Just then, a sharp bell sounded, calling everyone’s attention to a person at the front. They beamed, and stepped out from behind the teacher’s desk. 

“God I’ve missed ringin’ that bell. All summer I was like, itchin’ to ring it again,” they laughed at themself as they walked up to the front of the classroom. 

David glanced around the classroom, trying to gauge what everyone else though about this kid. All of the other students were smiling at him, and most were rolling their eyes. 

“I hope you all had an awesome summer,” they continued, “and a pretty good first few days of school. I’m super hyped for doin’ the club this year again, and I’m more excited to be president!” 

They were met with more laughs and eyerolls. 

“Anyway, I figured today we’d start out with some introductions, since it’s a new year and all, and then just an icebreaker game. Nothin’ too bad,” they paused to think. Then they added, “Uh, if you’re new, I might ask you to share a little bit more, but you don’t have to do that if you don’t wanna.”

David’s heart almost stopped. He’d known they’d be doing introductions, and he was more-or-less prepared for that, but he didn’t know how much he’d actually want to talk. 

“I’ll go first, and we’ll go to Crutchie next. Let’s just say your name, your pronouns, your orientation, and any other identity words or facts you think we need to know. Includin’ who you’re dating, if you want. But we’re keeping it short, alright?” They pointed their finger around the circle, making eye contact with everyone.  
“Alright. I’m Jack, I use he/him, I’m pan and uh, datin’ Crutchie. I think that’s it.” He pointed at the person next to him. 

“Hey,” they gave a little wave, and it was once they moved their arm that David saw a forearm crutch leaning up against the desk. “I’m Crutchie, I use they/them or sometimes he/him pronouns, I uh, like boys, and I’m happy to be back!” They paused, and then added, “Oh, yeah, and I’m datin’ Jack, like he said.”

“He said keep it short, gee Crutchie. You’re such an attention hog, adding on full sentences like that. Such a drama queen,” the person next to Crutchie moved their hands around wildly as they spoke, making sure they had absolutely everyone’s attention. “Anyways, I’m Race, he/him, gay as hell, trans as hell, might be polyam as hell, who knows. I’m dating this guy,” he pointed to his right, “and I-

“-Need to watch your language,” Race’s date interrupted. “Spot. He/him. Gay as fuck, trans as fuck,” he grinned as Race hit him on the shoulder, whining about being cut off. 

The introductions passed around the circle, allowing an Albert and an Elmer and a Mush and a Blink and a Romeo and a Smalls and who knows how many others to introduce themselves.  
David knew he’d never remember all those names and sexualities and pronouns. But there wasn’t much time for thinking that, when he was going over what he was going to say when he introduced himself. 

Eventually, he heard the kid next to him, Specs, introduce themself, and pass the introduction on to him. 

“Hey,” he stammered, and gave a weak smile. “I’m uh, David, and I use he/him pronouns, I guess,” he looked at his desk. “And I’m gay,” he said quickly and quietly. 

“Ain’t you sure?” he heard a chuckle from across the circle, and looked up to meet Jack’s eyes. He wasn’t making a mean joke, though. On anyone else, Jack’s smile might have made David angry. But here it only made David blush and grimace.  
“We’ve all been there,” Jack said sympathetically, and everyone in the circle nodded. 

“Hi, I’m Katherine. She/her cis girl, asexual, and heteroromantic,” The girl next to him began talking, and David almost got the feeling that she spoke more confidently than she felt. He wouldn’t have noticed normally, but he saw her hands fidgeting behind her back. 

A few of the kids in the circle looked at each other, seeming to exchange thoughts with only their eyes. They brushed it off, though, when Jack started talking again. 

“Okay, awesome. I was plannin’ on askin’ the new guys some questions, but I don’t think we will. We don’t got the time. Let’s play a game.” 

-

David left the first meeting tired. Maybe it was the coffee’s fault, again. 

“Probably not the coffee,” he thought. “Probably it was the people I met and introducing myself and doing all of that. It was still worth it. I’ll be back next week.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bad news.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You guys have been so nice!! Thanks for appreciating and reading my first chapter.

He just wanted his first period class to go normally the next day. If he could have a totally uneventful day, he would be so happy. After the GSTA meeting, he decided he’d had enough excitement for a while; for a whole week, actually. 

Of course, the universe seemed to be against him. 

When he sat down at his desk, exactly two minutes before the tardy bell rang, the teacher looked up at him from where she was sitting, and leaned over to talk to him. 

“Excuse me,” she tapped his desk twice. “I know we met a few days ago, when you started here, but I wanted to make sure you know you can always ask me for help.” She grinned and continued, “I, uh, heard from a little birdy that you were at the GSTA meeting yesterday, and that you’re using a different name than the one I have on my roster. Would you rather I call you by that?”

“Uh, yes, please. If you could call me David, I’d really appreciate it.”

“Alright, David,” she leaned back and wrote on her seating chart. When she finished, he could see his old name crossed out and his new name written above it. 

“Miss Larkin?” he asked, as the bell finally rang. “How did you hear that I was at the GSTA, exactly?”

“Oh,” she laughed. “I’m Jack and Spot’s foster mother. Both of them were talking about ‘the new kid,’ yesterday, and asked if I’d met you. It took a little bit of figuring out, but, as it turned out, I had met you!”

David nodded, trying to remember if Jack and Spot had talked about being foster siblings yesterday, while also trying to think of what they might have said about him. 

“Miss Larkin! Class is starting!” A voice from the other side of the room called. 

“It is? Well how’s it going?” she laughed, but received blank stares from the class. 

-

Halfway through the class, just as Medda was finishing teaching, David felt a tap on his shoulder. 

“David, right?” a voice whispered in his ear, and a hand clapped his shoulder. “I’m Mush.”  
David turned around, to see a mess of dark hair and a dimple staring him down. 

“Right, Mush,” he nodded. “Wow, I’m glad someone else from the GSTA is in at least one of my classes. It’s good to see you.”

Mush grinned, and both boys sat back in their seats.

“Oh, uh,” David turned around again. “Mush, I’m really sorry. I met a lot of people yesterday. Can you remind me how you identify?”

“He/him, queer and trans. And I’m dating Blink.”

“Okay, right. Thanks.”

-

Class ended, and he left with a wave to both Miss Larkin and Mush, before trying to run across the school campus to his next class. He still wasn’t quite sure how much time he needed to get from one class to the next, and he always liked being early. It gave him time to settle in where he needed to be, and to try to talk to the other people in his class. 

He didn’t know how he hadn’t noticed that Jack and Crutchie were in this class with him. Honestly, he felt like hitting himself upside the head. They weren’t exactly inconspicuous, after all.   
They waved to him when they walked in, and made their way over to his seat once they had dropped their stuff off at their desks. 

“I knew you looked familiar,” Cruchie told him, resting a hand on David’s desk. “But I honestly never woulda guessed that you were in this class with us.”

“I just didn’t notice you, cause I’m a bad person,” Jack laughed. “And I’m always starin’ at Crutchie during this class.”

Crutchie rolled his eyes, but blushed just enough to make Jack puff up with pride. 

The bell rang, and the boys made their way to their desks, but no one sat down. 

“Good morning,” a voice droned over the loudspeaker. “Please stand for the pledge of allegiance.”

David stood up, ashamed that he hadn’t known to stand. 

As the pledge began, David kept his mouth closed. Looking around, he saw that everyone in the classroom was doing the same. Apparently, no one here said the pledge. 

“And now for your daily announcements. The orchestra concert is coming up, on August 30th. If you have any problems with your schedule, you can still fix it in the counseling office until August 23rd. And now, Principal Pulitzer with a special announcement.” 

“Thank you, Mr. Weisel. As many of you know, there were many disputes last year that had to do with bathrooms, and who may use which bathrooms. In order to settle these disputes, the school administration has decided that all students must use the bathroom that corresponds with the gender they were assigned at birth. Thank you.”

David’s heart stopped, and his blood froze. 

“What the fuck?” he heard Crutchie whisper.

“Yeah, what the fuck?” Jack yelled. 

“Mr. Kelly,” the teacher turned his head to Jack. “I’ll thank you not to use profanity in my classroom.” 

“They can’t do that!” Jack protested.

“They can do whatever they want,” a student at the front of the class sneered. “It’s their school.”

As the teacher walked to the front of the classroom and began to write on the board, David watched Jack and Crutchie pull out their phones and begin to text furiously. He assumed they were texting each other, despite being right next to each other. 

When the bell rang once more, he began to grab his bag, but was stopped by a hand on his shoulder. 

“David,” Jack pulled David’s face close to his own. “We’re havin’ an emergency GSTA meeting today after school. Can you come?”

“Maybe, I could try, but-”

“Good. You know where Medd- Miss Larkin’s room is?”

“Yeah.”

“Meet us there after school?”

“Okay, alright. I can probably do that,” David nodded, already working out his excuse to his parents. If he said he’d made friends, they’d be happy enough that they wouldn’t care where he was. 

“Good,” Crutchie interrupted. “Here, can you put your number in my phone? I’ll add you to the groupchat we’ve got, and text you if anything changes.” 

David added himself as a contact in Crutchie’s phone, before walking as fast as he could to his next class, all the while wondering what he had gotten himself into.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You know the drill. Leave kudos and or comments if you liked it, and come talk to me on Tumblr @javidblue or @spot-and-all-his-cronies!


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not super confident about this chapter, because it's a lot of plot and not very much fun. Besides that, it's much shorter than the first two chapters. Oh well, I hope you enjoy it regardless of what I think!

The emergency GSTA meeting looked, at first glance, a lot like the one David had attended the day before. The din hurt his ears, but at least this time he recognized most of the people. He could name Sniper, Spot, Race, Albert, Jack, Crutchie, Blink, and Mush. Some of the students looked completely new to David, but he took a deep breath and sat down next to Mush. 

“Hi David!” Mush grinned at him. “Pretty horrible stuff, that announcement, huh?”

“Yeah, seriously. It’s messed up, but what can you do, right?”

Mush was about to reply when a loud screeching broke through the room. Everyone turned to the back of the classroom to see Jack, pushing back his desk loudly, kissing Crutchie on the forehead, and standing up.   
“Okay, everyone,” he took long strides to make his way to the front of the room. “You all heard the news. We don’t get to go into the bathrooms that match our identity anymore, accordin’ to new school rules. What are we goin’ to do about it?”

“They can’t do that, can they? I mean, legally?” the person on David’s right spoke up. 

“Why not?” Mush asked. “Their bathrooms.”

“Their school,” Crutchie shook his head. 

“Ain’t we got no rights?” someone that David didn’t recognize threw their hands in the air. 

“We’ve got to be able to do somethin’,” Jack put his head in his hands. “Anyone have anythin’ helpful to say?”

A moment passed in which nobody said anything. 

Jack groaned. “Alright. Okay. So obviously, we’re not gonna go through with this. Their bathrooms are here for us. They’re our bathrooms. The teachers ain’t gonna care about the kids, they’ve got their own bathrooms!”

The door creaked open, and everyone’s heads turned to watch as a blushing and flustered Katherine stepped through the door. 

Jack coughed, and continued. “So what if we continue usin’ the bathrooms that we should be usin’.”

“And they’ll send us all to detention!” Albert said, banging his hand on the table. 

“They won’t even care that much. They’re not gonna worry about enforcin’ this rule, I bet.”

David looked around, trying to gauge the emotions of the students around him. He watched as Katherine closed the notebook in which she had been furiously scribbling, and open her mouth. 

“Still, it might get awfully dangerous. If someone knows about this new rule, and sees someone in the bathroom that isn’t,” she paused, searching for the right words, “technically allowed there, they might try to hurt them.”

“Any ideas on that, then?” Jack asked the group. 

Again, silence. 

“I’ll go with you!” David gasped under his breath. 

Mush turned to look at him. “What?”

Suddenly, all eyes were on him. He took a deep, albeit shaky breath, and explained.   
“You know, the ‘I’ll go with you’ buttons. They’re just really little buttons that people are putting on their backpacks and wearing around, they’ve got the trans flag and the words ‘I’ll go with you’ written on them.” Jack motioned for David to keep talking, and he clenched his fist. “The point of them is that cis allies wear them and then trans people who don’t feel safe can ask a cis person to go into the bathroom with them and protect them, so to speak. If we buy a bunch of buttons, pass them out to allies, and then make a big deal of having pairs of people go to the bathroom, it might get the message out.” 

He saw heads nodding, and he saw heads shaking. Jack blinked and drummed his fingers on the desk in front of him. 

“That could be good. That could work. Davey, can you work on that? Figure out how many buttons we might need, and try to get some ordered or made? We’ll need them pretty soon.”

“We’re just gonna be getting us and cis people in trouble! We’re gonna have no allies if they get detention because of us,” a kid, Jojo, raised their hand. 

“It’ll have to work, for a while. A little bit, at least. But then, it’s gonna be on us to do somethin’ bigger,” Jack held up his hands. 

“Dave, lemme know tomorrow what you find with those buttons. Unless somethin’ else happens, our next meeting is still next Tuesday.” 

Jack sat down next to Crutchie, and people began to leave. Before David left, he peeked at what Katherine was writing, and waved to those still in the room. His mind was already running in circles thinking about all the ways to deal with the pins.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Coming up next: bonus chapter in which Jack and Crutchie discuss some topics of interest.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Short lil bonus chapter in which Jack and Crutchie discuss Davey

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think it's important to note that there are going to be some criticisms of cishet allies in this fic. There will also quite possibly be some homophobic/transphobic slurs. In writing these, my intention is not to start discourse around either of these things, but rather to show what it might be like in an actual high school if the events of the story were to unfold.

Jack and Crutchie sat in Medda’s classroom long after everyone else left. Jack always needed time to decompress after leading meetings, especially ones that put a lot of pressure on him to think on his feet and solve problems, such as this most recent meeting. He loved having time set aside to be with only Crutchie, and to talk about nothing or everything. 

“How do you think that went?” Crutchie leaned forward and put a hand on Jack’s knee. 

“I think… I don’t know what I think. I dunno, Crutch,” he rubbed his thumb over the top of Crutchie’s hand. “I mean, I don’t know what’s gonna happen. They could actually really not care about a bunch a’ kids in the ‘wrong’ bathroom. Or we could all end up suspended. I dunno.”

“I think,” Crutchie looked toward the ceiling, then at Jack, “startin’ out with these buttons is a good idea. We can test it, see what happens, and then go from there.”

“Think maybe Albo’s right, though? We’ll just get twice as many people in trouble?”

Crutchie considered it. “Maybe. But if their detention is twice as full, or if they’re suspendin’ twice as many people, they’re gonna have to notice, right?”

“Yeah.”

They walked to Jack’s car, periodically bouncing new ideas off of each other. 

“It’s gonna be hard, I think,” Crutchie conceded, “to get enough allies, ‘cause cis boys from this school aren’t really gonna want to help, and there aren’t that many trans girls in the club; it’s mostly boys.”

“I agree. We’re gonna have to really work hard gettin’ people to commit to the pins.”

They climbed in his car, and Jack ran his hand through his hair and sighed, before turning the key and putting the car in gear. 

Crutchie cleared his throat and clicked his seatbelt. “So, uh,” the corner of his mouth turned upwards. “What do you think of that new boy? David?”

“He seems nice,” Jack said as the car rolled out of its parking spot. “Cool. Well, not really cool. Smart, though.Real smart. The pins are a pretty good idea, so I guess it’s good to have him.” He turned the steering wheel and drove out of the parking lot. “He might be kinda unsure of himself. He didn’t exactly declare his orientation. But like I said, we’ve all been there.” His right hand moved, as if by habit, to rest on Crutchie’s leg. 

Crutchie hummed lowly. “He’s, uh, kinda cute too, don’tcha think?”

Jack blinked and turned his head to glance at Crutchie. “Is this one of those things where you ask me if someone’s cute just so you can get all jealous and angry? I’ve heard about those, but I never thought you’d have been the type-”

“No, it’s not. I just figured that maybe, with all that you’d been lookin’ at him and checkin’ him out, you thought he looks cute.”

“You sure sound a little jealous to me, Crutch. It’s okay, but you don’t gotta think I’d ever like anyone more than I’d like you.”

Crutchie smiled. “Yeah, you’re sweet. But honest, I ain’t jealous. I’m just observant. You were lookin’ at him and I wanted you to know that it’s okay.”

“What? For sure?”

“For sure. He’s pretty cute, right?”

“Dszahdh-”

“Uh-huh,” Crutchie laughed. “I think so too.”

Jack moved his hand away from Crutchie’s leg as they pulled into Crutchie’s driveway. He pulled the parking brake on and leaned over to kiss his boyfriend. 

“How did I get so lucky as to have you?” Jack whispered when the two of them finally pulled away from each other. 

“If you figure that out, lemme know,” Crutchie opened his door and hopped out. 

“I’ll think about it for a while and tell you tomorrow!” Jack grabbed Crutchie’s backpack from the backseat and passed it to him. 

“Alright, you do that.”

“Bye, love!” Jack yelled after him as he closed the door and walked away. 

Crutchie, red in the face and with his backpack slung over his shoulder, blushed and waved.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! If you like it, kudos and comments make sure that there are more chapters following this one!


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guess who's finally has a concrete idea of how they're going to write the rest of the story?? Yep! 
> 
> Also I wanted to add that the pins are actually available for about a dollar, they're not expensive but I said they are so that we can keep the plot going.

David didn’t quite know how he planned to say it. He hadn’t been able to find the pins. At least, not ones at reasonable prices that they could get within the next week. This would be a serious letdown for the group, and he felt awful for not doing well enough. 

He watched the clock until the bell rang, both awaiting and dreading lunchtime, when he would have to find Jack and tell him the news. As he walked into the cafeteria, though, it was Jack who found him. 

“Davey!” he heard Jack call, and turned to see the boy, surrounded by what looked like dozens of his closest friends, waving at him. Crutchie looked up and waved too, grinning ear to ear. 

Crutchie coughed loudly when David sat down, and Jack elbowed his boyfriend in the side, chuckling quietly and - no - blushing? No. 

“Hey, Dave,” Crutchie welcomed him when the two of them had stopped whatever their joke was. “How are you doin’?”

“I’m okay. How are you guys? Having good days so far?”

“Yeah, I’d say so,” Crutchie took a bite of his sandwich. 

“Every day’s a good day if I’ve got you guys here,” Jack’s eyes looked serious, but his smile said otherwise. 

Crutchie choked on his food and shoved Jack. “Shut up!” he laughed loudly. “You flirt.”

David laughed along with them, feeling some of the anxiety from earlier dissipating as he did. Some, not all. 

“Hey, you guys. Uh, about those pins,” he rested his hand in the middle of the table, “I couldn’t find any that I thought would work. We might honestly have to just try something else. I’m really sorry.”

Jack nodded as David spoke, and Crutchie answered.   
“Y’know, I think that’ll be fine. It was a real good idea and all, but if you can’t find ‘em, we can do somethin’ else.”

“Yeah. They coulda worked, but I think the idea had its own fair share ‘a problems too. Like we were talkin’ about, it would be hard to find allies willin’ to go to detention for this.”

David nodded along, disappointed but not surprised. 

“I’m not sayin’ we should give up on the idea, of course,” Jack continued. “And we can't just put this off a few days, but if we can find a way to do it different, then we should. But maybe right now we could use somethin’ a little more direct.”

“Exactly!” Crutchie waved his hand around. “I was talkin’ to my mom about it-” he paused like he remembered David was new. “My mom’s real great, Davey, nice and acceptin’ and all that.”

David smiled. If there was anyone he could think of that deserved a family that loved him, it would have been Crutchie. 

“Anyway, she said that when she was a kid-”

“Jack!” A voice rang out, and everyone turned their heads to see where the noise had come from. A person, much shorter than David or Crutchie, came barreling past all the other students. 

Jack stood up. “Jojo! What’s going on?” he asked, his face concerned. 

Crutchie stood up too, and as the kid got closer, David began to notice that his face had all sorts of cuts and scrapes on it, as did his arms and hands. 

“What happened?” Crutchie asked. 

Jack hesitated slightly before putting his hand on Jojo’s shoulder.

“I went to the bathroom,” he said, his shoulders visibly shaking, and tears starting to fall. “Like you said we were going to do. I went to the boy’s bathroom, the one by the science rooms, but when I was washing my hands som-someone came in,” he took an unsteady breath. “Someone came in and he pushed me up against the stall and I hit my head and he hit my face and pushed me down and-”

“Okay. Okay, kid,” Jack leaned down to make eye contact with Jojo. “You’re going to be okay. You don’t have to say all of it if you don’t want to. The bathroom by the science classes, right?”

Jojo nodded. 

“Alright. Is there someone from the GSTA in your next class, Jo?”

He nodded again. 

“Who?”

“Smalls and Finch,” Jack guided Jojo to sit down where Jack had been sitting. 

Straightening his back, Jack scanned the crowd at the tables surrounding him. 

“Smalls!” he called, and a head turned to reveal someone David vaguely recognized from the first GSTA meeting. Jack motioned for Smalls to come over, and they rushed to where Jack and Jojo stood. 

“Oh my god, what’s going on?” they asked, grabbing Jojo’s hands. 

Jojo started to answer, but Jack cut him off. 

“Can you stay with Jojo a while? I think a bunch of us are going to go do something about this, but we can’t leave him alone.”

“Yeah, yeah, I can do that,” Smalls sat down next to Jojo and, almost instinctively put their arm around him. Jojo leaned into them, and Smalls’ shoulders fell sadly. 

Jack didn’t notice; he was too busy packing up the lunch that he had out. Crutchie and David began to follow his lead. 

“Jack?” Smalls said as Jack turned his back to them. “Be safe, alright?” They raised their eyebrows. 

“Yeah. Yeah, we’re gonna be.”

Jack didn’t sound so sure, and David didn’t feel so sure.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Come yell at me about this fic or Davey Jacobs or whatever @spot-and-all-his-cronies on Tumblr!


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pull up your copy of Newsies Live. Flip to like the middle of Seize the Day. Okay now have that play in the background as you read this chapter.

David and Crutchie followed Jack out into the school courtyard, trying to keep up with his long strides. He muttered something under his breath and ran his hands through his hair before pulling his phone out of his back pocket and clicking it on. Typing furiously, he shot a text to the groupchat. Crutchie and David received the text only seconds later. The pulled their phones out and read it while Jack shoved his phone in his back pocket again.

“Why are we going to meet in the boys bathroom?” Crutchie asked. “What’s your plan here?”

Jack scoffed and pulled his backpack further up his shoulders. 

“We’re having a sit in,” he stared them both in the eyes. “Come on.”

Crutchie and David looked nervously at each other, and David swallowed. This was it. This was the time to seize the day, to find a way to get his rights. 

Jack took off in the direction of the science classrooms, walking like he was being chased. The other boys followed him, still trying to calm their nerves. 

They arrived at the boys’ bathroom by the science classroom, and Jack opened the heavy door to let the three of them in. The grimy tile looked less than inviting, but the empty bathroom was likely just where they needed to be. 

For the first time, Jack looked unsure. “So I guess we just sit here,” he shrugged. 

“And hopefully more people will come,” Crutchie sat down, propping himself up against the wall. 

David did the same, his breaths shortening so he didn’t have to smell too much of the revolting air. 

It couldn't have been more than a few minutes, not long at all, until Race showed up. 

“I got the text. Why are all the boys supposed to come here?” He held up his phone, and stared, shaking his head, at the boys. 

“We’re doing a sit in,” Jack said, as if that was enough to explain it. 

David sighed. “Jojo - that’s his name, right?” He looked at Crutchie, who nodded. “Jojo used this bathroom, like we all agreed to do, and he was beaten up.”  
“Oh my god,” Race’s eyebrows knit together. 

“Smalls stayed with him to take him to his next class, but enough is enough, right?” Crutchie finished for David. 

“If we don’t stand up right now, now that one of us is hurt, we can’t do this at all. We wouldn’t deserve to do this at all if we can’t do it now,” Jack said, his hands nervously wringing at his backpack next to him on the floor. 

Their phones dinged with a text from Race. 

“Seriously, everyone get to this bathroom now?” David read it out loud, before sending an urgent text of his own. Crutchie did the same, and soon there were five, then six, then seven and eight boys in the bathroom, all sitting on the floor. 

Spot came after Race, then Albert, Romeo and Specs, followed by Elmer, Mush, Blink, and many others. The entire floor, except for the area in the stalls, was covered with boys. 

David watched Jack look around and puff up with pride. He’d made a difference, or he was in the process of making a difference, and he was thrilled with the outcome thus far. The look on Jack’s face made David smile, but as he smiled he noticed something else. His stomach turned over, and his own chest swelled up. Jack’s smile made the nauseating bathroom feel a little better. He pulled his focus away from Jack, and mentally smacked himself.   
His attention turned to Crutchie, who was also watching Jack. Right. Jack and Crutchie were dating. Crutchie felt David staring at him, and turned to look at him. David almost returned the knowing smile that Crutchie was giving him, but the bathroom door banged open. 

In the doorway stood three boys, wearing football jerseys. Davey had seen them around the school before, but never spoken to them. Crutchie’s hand shifted to Jack’s leg, but Jack pushed it away and stood up. 

“I bet,” he declared to the echoing walls of the bathroom. “That someone put you boys up to this. Asked you to come find everyone missin’ from class, and you decided to look here. Now you probably wanna remove us from these premises. Yeah?” 

David let out a small gasp as Jack continued. 

“But you didn’t feel what each of us felt when we stepped into this bathroom. You didn’t - you’ve never - been scared to go into a bathroom for fear of bein’ hurt by someone already in there. We feel that every day. There’s already a kid hurt, who’s sitting in class right now in pain, because he needed to go to the bathroom and he wanted to do it where he thought he would be safe.”

The boy at the front started nodding, his face betraying regret. 

“So I’m gonna ask you a question. Will you help us?” 

The boy at the front stepped forward and sat down. 

“Thank you,” Jack looked at the boy on the floor, and then back at the other two boys. “It’s not about helping us, you know. There are kids all across the country who are just as scared as we are to go into any bathroom. And it’s not about bathrooms. It’s about safety, it’s about friendships, and it’s about acceptance.”

Another boy sat down. 

“It’s about being on the right side of history,” Jack stared the third boy in the face. “It’s about doing what you can to change the world.”

The third boy shook his head in disbelief, and sat down, causing all the boys from the GSTA to cheer and clap each other on the backs. 

It didn’t take long until their cheering, and eventually their laughing and chattering was heard by a passing teacher. David noticed him poke his face in, and before he could alert Jack to what was happening, a group of five teachers and administrators stepped in.   
One of them was Principal Pulitzer, another was Vice Principal Snyder, and the others were teachers David didn’t recognize. 

Pulitzer scanned the crowd of boys, glaring at them with a disgraced air. He promptly turned up his nose, and made his way out of the room, his secretary quickly in tow. 

“Who is in charge here?” bellowed Snyder. David almost impulsively stood up, but he pinned himself to the ground as he felt Jack stirring beside him. 

But the person who spoke next wasn’t Jack. 

“Me. I am,” Crutchie raised his hand, and allowed himself to be dragged from the crowd to the front office.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You should all know that I smiled at your pain last chapter. I had to get Crutchie into the refuge somehow, sorry. 
> 
> Also, if you're enjoying this fic I would recommend you go read "The S. Roosevelt High Banner"! It's the best modern gay adaptation of the musical I've ever seen.

David sat at his kitchen table later that day, staring at the the paper he had to get his parents to sign. A detention slip, declaring that he would be attending detention on Friday afternoon, all day Saturday, and Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday afternoons.   
He took a deep breath as the door opened, and he braced himself to tell the truth, no matter how hard it was going to be. 

Looking up, he saw Sarah standing in the doorway, instead of his mom. 

“What’s that look for?” she asked, her face scrunching. 

“I got-” his phone buzzed. “I got detention. Five of them.”

She shook her head, disbelieving. “This has nothing to do with the people who were sitting in the boys’ bathroom at school today, right?”

He took a deep breath in, but she nodded before he could say anything. 

“Right. So are you my little sister or my little brother?”

David was dumbfounded. “Brother,” he managed, as Sarah strode around the room, making her snack like they were talking about an uneventful day. 

“Nice. Do you have a different name, lil bro?” she grinned as the nickname she usually reserved for Les slid out. 

“Uh, I’ve been using David.”

“I like it. Fits you.”

“So you’re just-” his phone buzzed again, multiple times in a row, and he grabbed it, clicking the power button hard. A series of texts to the groupchat, from Crutchie. 

Crutchie: hey guys. are you all okay? im alright, i guess. i got soaked pretty bad when they pulled me out of the bathroom. my crutch got all bent and my leg got hurt.   
Crutchie: this is crutchie, by the way, if anyone doesn’t have my number already.   
Crutchie: the security guards are real mean. i had to stay real late after school, and they wouldn’t let me go to the bathroom or get a snack or nothin. i ended up gettin in school suspension, so i wont see any of you tomorrow or monday, maybe tuesday too. probably grounded too, so saturday and sunday are gonna be out.  
Crutchie: i missed seein you all later today. did we get homework from math, mush?  
Crutchie: part a me wantedto sneak away, but i figured i shouldnt, cause id get in more trouble.  
Crutchie: i think you guys can do it, though. take principal pulitzer down, i mean.  
Crutchie: and then we can use the bathrooms we wanna use!!!  
Crutchie: im okay, guys. but please, i gotta ask you to do somethin. look out for each other, okay? And protect one another from gettin hurt or in trouble. you can do it. 

David’s heart sank, reading the texts. Crutchie had just sacrificed everything for them. There was no way he was actually as okay as he claimed to be, but David admired the guy for trying. It hurt, picturing him in the office with his leg in pain, trying to figure out how he would tell everyone that he was okay and to carry on as best they could. 

David: Sorry to hear about in-school-suspension, Crutchie. I’m glad to hear you’re going to be alright. We’re definitely going to keep going with this, we’re not going to quit. I agree with you, I think we can do it. 

\--

Jack read the texts. Yeah, all of them. He hadn’t stood up in time, and he couldn’t believe himself. It had been him who should have taken responsibility for the sit in. And he gladly would have done it, he was proud of the work he had done, him and his boys. But would that have done anything? They got shut down. Detention for him and for Davey and all the rest. In school suspension for Crutchie. And it was his fault. Oh god, it was his fault. If he’d kept his big mouth shut none of this would have-

He’d leave. He would leave. He wanted to leave, and be done with all of this. He could leave. He could be done with all of this. Gone. And done. That’d be the end of it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm apologizing for not updating yesterday, but I'm really not super sorry. My updates might be slowing down some, what with school and work and stuff. Anyway, enjoy.

Detention was like nothing David had ever seen. He’d been in the room before, the school library, and he’d certainly seen the people he was with before, in the boys’ bathroom. But he’d never felt so disheartened, surrounded by so much hopelessness.   
All of the boys around him, from the three who had joined them last minute to the ones who had been there from the very beginning, sat slumped over at the tables. For a moment his brain flashed the image of The Breakfast Club, which he promptly shoved away, preferring to focus on the reason they were there, and think about what would come next. But he was at a blank. He had nothing in his mind, just static. 

“I’m going to get water and go to the bathroom,” the teacher in charge of them stood up. “You all know the rules, don’t break them. I will be back soon, and I will know if you speak or if you use your phones, and I will especially be able to tell if you have snuck off.”

She closed the door behind her, and Race stood up as soon as her figure disappeared from sight. 

“So. This sucks,” he slammed his hands down on the table. “Anyone up for goin’ to get pizza after this?” 

Many of the boys looked around and nodded. 

“We can figure out what we wanna do next, with the strike I mean,” Race added, prompting more boys to nod. 

Jack, in the back corner of the room, scoffed loudly and propped his head up for the first time since he got there. 

“I ain’t goin’,” he grumbled, putting his head down again as quickly as it had come up. 

“Alright. More fun for the rest of us then,” Race laughed, flopping himself back into his chair only seconds before they saw the teacher in the window again. 

-

Jacobi’s pizza appeared to be a staple in the culture of the GSTA. Everyone knew every menu item there, and everyone spoke to the owner like they were old friends. By the time they got there, some of the dreariness of detention had already worn off of the boys’ moods. They were at least talking again. 

Still, no one felt optimistic about their prospects. They sat around the table, laughing and eating their pizza, but there was a faint sense of uneasiness, almost like no one wanted to bring up how detention had felt, but everyone also felt the need to talk about it. 

David heard a bell ding and turned his head to the door. A cold breeze blew into the restaurant, bringing Katherine along with it. 

“Hey guys!” she invited herself over to their table with a smile. “I heard you all talking about this place a few days ago, and I needed to find you today, so I figured I’d look he-” she stopped when she looked around the table, noticing that all the boys around her were staring at her with disdain.   
“Heh,” she coughed unnaturally. “Would you get a load of these glum mugs?” she asked, trying desperately to pull herself out of the hole she’d dug. “Could this really be the same group of people who made the headline on today’s paper?” Katherine pushed her iPad forward to show the school’s online newspaper. 

“Lemme see!” Race climbed over a few boys next to his to get a better look at the headline. “Woah!” 

Everyone passed the iPad around, and when it got to David, he read the headline aloud under his breath.   
“GSTA Fights For Equal Rights,” he muttered, and smiled. 

Katherine beamed at the claps on the back she was receiving. “The physical copies are distributed Monday morning, so you’ll all see your names in there.”

“That’s so awesome!” Race shouted, slamming his hands on the table and throwing his head back to laugh. 

“Why?” a boy from the other end of the table chimed in. “I mean, sure. It’s cool, but no one reads the school newspaper.”  
“Hey, be polite,” Katherine told him, tilting her nose up slightly. “I work really hard on that paper. It means a lot to me,” she paused. “Even if you’re right, which you technically are, you can be nicer about it.” 

“Besides,” Race cracked up laughing. “We’re like, practically famous now! I ain’t never been in the paper before, this is a good start!”   
His face became serious again before looking around at the people seated with him, all of them crammed into the booths of one giant round table. “Besides. Crutchie’s been suspended, we got detention. Jack won’t say nothin’ to anyone. Don’t you think we deserves a little celebration?”

“Race is right,” David spoke up for the first time since he arrived at the pizza parlor. “This is awesome! If we’ve got the paper on our side, then we might be able to get the rest of the school on our side.”

Katherine looked like she was going to say something, but Spot spoke up first. 

“Y’know what?” he said, slinging his arm around Race’s shoulder and showing a dimple on his cheek. “Let’s get another two pitchers of soda and a cookie cake, yeah?”

The boys shouted, and a chorus of laughter rang from their table.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you liked it! Leave comments and kudos if you did!


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not going to say that I improved Alan Menken's lyrics by having Davey say fuck. But I'm not going to deny that he deserved to say fuck.

“Sarah,” he knocked on his sister’s door and turned the handle. The door creaked open, and he heard her invite him in. “Do you want to join the GSTA?” she gave him a concerned look. “Even just for a few days? I’ve been thinking that we’re just going to need all the help we can get with whatever we’re going to be doing next and well, you were so nice the other day that-”

“Sure,” she interrupted. “I’ll join in with whatever you’re doing.”

He stared at her.

“It’s a good cause, isn’t it?”

David nodded.

“Then yeah, I’ll join.”

Not knowing what else to do, David thanked her and walked out of the room. 

-

That Monday morning, David and Sarah arrived early to school, and met up with Katherine before they rushed into Medda’s classroom, where they found exactly who they had been hoping to see. 

“Jack!” David threw his arms up, and Sarah propped herself up against the doorframe while Katherine stood behind her. “No one has heard anything from you. Not even Crutchie! Do you really think you can get away with leaving all your friends like that?”

David watched Jack turn around from where he was working on a painting. 

“Do ya not get it, Dave? Like, do you not know that we’re done? They shut us down.”

“Yeah, they got us this time,” Davey put his backpack down on a desk. “But I really think - and a lot of us really think that we can come back from this. Do something bigger, better, and more effective than anything anyone’s ever tried before.”

Jack turned back to his painting, huffing out heavily. 

“Hold on,” Davey paused. “This is an English classroom. Why are you painting in here and not in an art room?”

“Mind your own damn business, Jacobs.”

“I’ll do no such thing, Jack Kelly.”

Jack slammed his paints on the ground, and some splattered on the carpet. “Would’ya tell me why you’re here so you can leave me alone?”

“Fine. I’m here because we need a leader for this to work, and you’re the best at doing that. I’m here because we’re doing something no one’s ever done, so we have to be braver than anyone’s ever been,” David took a step closer to Jack. “I’m here because we have to keep going, but we can’t keep going without you.” He was dangerously close to Jack, and their eyes met before Jack turned back around. 

“Crutchie’s been suspended. It’s my fault. He’ll come back eventually, but I’m not lettin’ any more kids get in trouble.”

“We have to do this, though, or Crutchie getting suspended will be for nothing! We’re going to win.”

“Did detention mess up your brain or somethin’? We got our asses kicked,” Jack bit at Davey. “They won.”

“Okay, sure, but why did we get our asses kicked?”

“Whaddaya mean why?” David started to explain himself, but Jack cut him off. “Here’s what I think. Pulitzer, and all his administration, are rattlesnakes. Nothin’ more.”

David turned around and locked eyes with Sarah, who grinned. She was thinking the same thing he was. 

“Well yeah,” he looked back at Jack. “But everyone knows why a snake starts to rattle, right?”

Jack looked at him inquisitively. “No.”

“It’s because they’re scared.”

“Sure.”

David scoffed. “Jacky, think about it. They have no idea what to do with all these kids protesting. Based on the school rules, we all deserved suspension. But they can’t suspend almost twenty students at a time, it’s bad for PR. So they gave us detention. But if we kick up our efforts a little bit, they’re not going to be able to do anything. It’s like their fucking heads are spinning!” 

“You might be right.”

Out of the corner of his eye, David saw Sarah punch the air with her fist, and he almost laughed.

“If they weren’t afraid of what we can do-” David could see gears spinning in Jack’s head. 

“Exactly,” Katherine spoke for the first time since getting there, which was odd for her. 

“We can do this,” Sarah stepped forward, and so did Katherine. 

“Are you back?” David asked Jack.

“I’m back.”

“Good. So here’s what I’m thinking,” David put his left hand on Jack’s shoulder, and his right on Sarah’s. “We have to get this further than us. We have to spread it. Get it to other schools. Are we connected at all with other GSTAs?”

Jack nodded.

“Good, we should ask them what the bathroom situation is at their schools. And then get together with them for one big GSTA club meeting. A rally, if you will.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you liked it!


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Of course I had to put in "The Truth About the Moon" who do you think I am?
> 
> I've gotten so many nice comments and messages about this fic, I love all of you who are reading it so much.

Davey’s heart rate increased steadily, and his stomach jumped at every new person who walked in. He didn’t know a lot of these people, because they were from all around the city and the district. Kids from Manhattan schools were here, and Spot had even gotten some of his old friends from his old school in Brooklyn to come, figuring that having more people in attendance would increase the overall reach of their message.  
The worst part of all of this, everything around him, was that Jack still hadn’t shown up. He’d wanted Jack to speak, to lead. But it was starting to feel like David might have to do something. His fingers tapped on his knee, as he sat in the middle of the large auditorium. Medda had gotten them this place, a theater where she performed before she had become a teacher. How she went from performer to English teacher, David might never understand. 

Eventually, the flow of students through the front door stopped, and David finally understood that it was time. 

“Hello, students!” he stood up, but feeling the pressure of hundreds of eyes on him, he froze. “Uh, Spot? You know more of these guys than I do, I think, so uh, let’s hear it for Spot Conlon, everyone!”

The kids around him cheered, and Davey retreated. 

Spot stood up, bowing sarcastically at the cheers. “Hey, hey!” he called them to a stop. “Let’s see what any homophobes have to say to you now, yeah?”

A person from behind Davey spoke up, loudly. 

“Davey,” they said, “where’s Jack at?”

David glanced at Medda, unsure. She shook her head. 

“Okay, everyone! Look at what we’ve done here,” David silenced the murmurs of his peers. “We have got queer kids and allies from every school in a thirty mile radius here right now. We have kids from different school districts, even different burroughs here. And we’re all here for one reason. The rules that our schools have instituted are transphobic and close-minded. Inherently, they are bigoted. And so we are going to unite to fix that. Right now, we’re making history. So thank you, everyone, for coming. Let’s show them that we are equal to cisgender heterosexual kids at our school, and we are ready to be treated that way.”

A voice bust in. “You wanna be treated like an adult? You’d better start acting like one. Don’t just run your mouth, make some sense.” Jack’s face broke through the crowd, and David’s brain couldn’t comprehend his words, but he was more than relieved to see his face. 

“And here’s Jack, everyone!”

“All right! Pulitzer banned us from using our bathrooms. And that was a lousy thing to do. So we got mad, and we show em we ain’t gonna be pushed around. So we do a sit in. And then what happens? Our issue goes to the school board, the PTA. And they agree with Pulitzer, ‘cause they don’t want their little girl in a bathroom with a man. And we get shut down. What do we do then? We gotta be realistic here, if we put up a fight there’s a chance we won’t graduate. How many times can you repeat your senior year of high school, over some bathroom?” Jack looked around, made eye contact with Davey, and then back at the people gathered.  
“But I have spoken with Mr. Pulitzer. And he has given me his word that if we put this to rest, he will look at the issue again in two years time.”

People around Jack started shouting, booing angrily. 

“Now I know that does us no good, but what about the kids who come after us, ah?” 

“We can’t just give up!” someone yelled. 

“It does them some good, we have to sacrifice somethin’ here.”

Davey rushed at Jack first, trying to grab him and pull him away from everyone so he could talk to him. But Spot reached him first, shoving him so that he almost hit the ground. Instead of falling, Jack stumbled through the crowd, right to where a teacher was standing, right into a handful of cash. 

People ran back and forth, all around the auditorium, trying to get out before fighting got serious. Jack ran away, as did most of their GSTA. 

David, however, stood in awe. He watched as Jack rushed out, his jaw slack. He didn’t move until he felt a hand on his shoulder: Sarah.  
He took her hand, and she led him outside. No one was there anymore, only the trash that everyone had left behind, and the shadows cast by the moon. 

-

David used to love the moon. It used to be his favorite thing to learn about; he knew every fact there was to know about it. But as he stood outside the theater, his hand still in Sarah’s, he couldn’t think of anything about the moon. All he could remember was how it had felt moments ago, when Jack had taken the money and fled. 

The moon might have been brighter than usual, he couldn’t tell. Maybe it only felt like he could see everything clearer than normal now, after all that had happened. 

David remembered how he couldn’t look away the first time he saw Jack. If he had ever thought that Jack was the person he claimed to be, it was just because Jack was the kind of boy who was good at what he did. 

He had trusted Jack so much more than he thought he had. He really, truly, wanted Jack to be a good guy here. And now, there was nothing to trust in. Except maybe the moon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! As always, I'm @spot-and-all-his-cronies on tumblr or @javidblue on tumblr


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's got Medda. It's got spot. It's got your javid. It's got something to believe in. What else can you ask for?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I use so much dialogue whoOps

Davey knew, more or less, that he wasn’t supposed to be where he was. Nevertheless, he knocked on the door, and it opened for him in seconds. 

“David,” the lady at the door stood, surprised. “What are you doing here? How- do I want to know how you got my address?”

“Miss Larkin, I’m really sorry” David apologised, his palms turning up. “I got this address through some mutual friends of mine and Jack’s, and I really wouldn’t have done it if it wasn’t important. Can I see Jack?”

“You know? He told me not to let anyone in,” Medda smiled, “but I think it’ll do him some good to talk to someone. Especially someone like you, so good with words.” She opened the door for him. 

“Thank you miss, I really appreciate it. If you need me to leave at any time, don’t worry about telling me so,” he stepped over the threshold. 

“His bedroom is upstairs, to the left. Spot’s is to the right.”

David thanked her again, and then ran up the stairs.   
He glanced around, noticing Spot’s door was open, but the other door wasn’t. Spot sat on his bed, directly to David’s right. He sat up a little straighter when he noticed Davey, and waved at him, obviously puzzled. Davey waved back quickly, before turning and placing his hand on Jack’s door handle. He turned it, and stepped in, trying desperately to stop his hands from sweating. 

“Spot, haven’t I kicked you out of my room enough alrea-” Jack looked up.

“I’m not Spot.”

“No, you’re not. What are you doing here, David?” 

“Medda let me up,” Davey, no longer aware of what he was doing, walked further into his room.   
Around Jack’s desk, where he was sitting, papers from a sketchbook lay torn out, most of them half-finished drawings of people. He picked one up.

“Did she say you could go through all my stuff?” Jack snatched the paper back. 

“These drawings. They’re all of kids from the GSTA.”

“Well yeah,” Jack put his palm to his forehead. “Those are my best friends.”

“Then why give up on them?”

Jack shook his head. “I meant what I said. You win a fight when you got the other guy down eatin’ pavement. They got the power, and we don’t. And those kids deserve to graduate, and focus on school, not detention. We shouldn’t be leadin’ a revolution. We’re just kids.”

Davey set his hand on Jack’s shoulder, but Jack moved it away. “This has a chance of bein’ more important than school,” Davey said. “This could change the whole game.”

“That’s rich, comin’ from you.”

“Yeah, it is. But you know what? It’s pretty rich coming from you, too. Because you’re the one who taught me that friendship and bravery are more important than books, cleverness, and school. More important than fear.”

Davey wasn’t quite sure how it could have happened, but he had leaned in close to Jack to try and keep his attention, and suddenly Jack had stood up and closed the distance between them. Their lips were touching, only grazing against each other at first until they began to force themselves together, rough and hungry.   
Davey couldn’t understand how he hadn’t needed this before, because now that he was kissing Jack it was all he wanted to do. 

Jack pulled away abruptly, startling Davey. “Woah woah woah,” he raised both his hands. “Are you sure you want to do this?”

“You snuck up on me, Jack Kelly,” Davey said in way of affirmation. “I never even saw it coming.” 

“For sure?”

“For sure,” Davey grinned, and Jack sat back down. “Until I met you, I thought I knew what it meant to love somebody,” Davey knelt, and put his hand on Jack’s knee. “But now I’m learning what’s true, and that’s that love will do what it does. You care so much for all of those people. You give them hope even if it feels like there is none. And I think you did that for me, Jack.”

Jack grinned. “Days ago, we was strangers. I thought you was cute, sure. But I didn’t know you would push me to start something like this at our school. You helped me believe in myself, and that’s why I believe in you.”

Again, their faces pressed together. Both of Davey’s hands were on Jack’s hips, and he breathed heavily into the kiss before pulling away. 

“Woah. Wait,” he shook his head. “What about Crutchie?”

“What about Crutchie?”

“Your boyfriend Crutchie? Who you just cheated on when you kissed me? Are you not concerned about thi-”

“Oh no, this is totally alright,” Jack laughed, as if none of this mattered to him. “I talked to him about this, about me likin’ you, and he’s fine. Actually, he’s for it.”

“What?”

“Honestly, I’m not sure,” Jack’s head tilted, “but I think he likes you too. So maybe all three of us should date! Y’now, if you’re okay with that,” he placed his hand on top of David’s.

“I’m... going to have to think on that a while,” David backed away from Jack, who stood up and walked to the other side of the room.

Jack, upon reaching the opposite corner, turned on his heel to face Davey.“You came here for a reason. What was it?”

“Oh, right!” David shook his head, as if he could clear it that way. “I spoke to Katherine, and Sarah, and a couple of other people. They, well Katherine mostly, had an idea that if we use posters, mass texts, and the school newspaper - and some of your drawings of the GSTA members, to humanize us - we can basically organize a school wide sit in,” Davey’s hands flew around as he talked, waving to his sides and above his heads. “More people, in shifts, going to the bathroom all day and staying there until they get kicked out. Cis people, trans people, and everyone in between. Plus, if we can spread the message to other schools, we can make this a city-wide trans revolution. What do you think?”

“I think, uh, it would be hard. That’s a lot of work. And Pulitzer’s not gonna allow a newspaper article or posters. But I think we could make somethin’ work with texts, and social media, and lotsa other stuff.”

Davey smiled at him, widely. “We’re gonna do it then? You’re really back this time?”

“I’m really back this time. We’re gonna do this.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Once and For All yall

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the longest chapter yet! That's super exciting! Honestly it's a good thing that it is because I havent updated in like three days.

Hundreds of pins flew around Davey as he stood in the library that morning. Jack printed out the pattern, and Specs covered them in tape. Romeo pushed safety pins through them, and pushed them to Davey as he finished. David put them, one at a time, into shoeboxes until each little box was filled with about one hundred pins. 

On the other side of the library, Katherine, Sarah, Sniper, and Smalls printed out Katherine’s article, titled “The Student's Revolution: A Plea for Equality for All,” pushing copies down the table and filling folders, fifty articles in each. 

Down the hall, in the computer lab, Crutchie, Jojo, Finch, Race, and Spot were printing copies of Jack’s drawings. Fifty drawings each of Katherine, Smalls, Jojo, Specs, Romeo, a football player from the first sit in who had agreed to help, Race, and Spot were being pulled out of printers.   
Some were paired together, like the ones of Katherine and Smalls, with the caption, “this girl can use the bathroom she feels safe in, why can’t the other girl?” Spot’s portrait was paired with the football player’s, (his name was Zach) and the caption said something similar to Katherine’s flier. The picture of Jojo read, “When you go to the bathroom, are you attacked? He was,” in bold print. 

Every flier and article had something in common: a date, time and place. Tomorrow, before school, Miss Larkin’s classroom, room 218. 

Volunteers carried the folders around all day, sneakily passing fliers to people they knew would help. After school that day, they passed out buttons, fliers, and articles in droves, doing all they could to get rid of every single copy. They said nothing as they carried out their jobs, only stayed quiet and shoved papers into hands. 

-

The next morning showed a good turn out in Medda’s room. The entire GSTA showed up, and it seemed like every closeted kid and ally was there too. Not a desk in the room was empty, and most had people sitting on top of the desks as well as in the chairs. 

Jack squeezed his boyfriend’s hand, and then clapped Davey on the back. Everyone watched him walk to the front of the room, his chest rising and falling as he did so.

“Okay, hi everyone,” he faltered slightly. “Thanks for comin’, it means a lot to have so many people here in support of us. I’m sure some of you are here because you saw what happened to Jojo, or Crutchie. Maybe you’ve got friends in this club, and you’re here because you want that person to think you’re cool. I dunno.” Jack came alive as he spoke, his eyes firing up. “But no matter why you came here in the first place, I’m askin’ you to make this a personal fight. Don’t halfway believe this, go all the way. Pretend it’s you who got beat up. Pretend it’s your boyfriend who was suspended for bein’ himself. Do whatever it takes to get you invested in this. Because this matters. This is no game anymore. This is the story we needed to write, the one that’s been kept out of sight. But no more. Finally, we’re raising the stakes: whatever it takes. This is the safety, and the acceptance, for all students at our school,” he looked around. “Now I’m gonna have Kath up here to explain our plan. Katherine?”

Katherine stepped to the front of the classroom, each step gaining confidence. 

“Hello,” she smiled, and made eye contact with as many people in the room as possible. “So here’s our plan. We’re going to send committees of people to bathrooms, three or four at a time. You can choose your own groups, but make sure that each committee has at least one cis person, and more than one trans person. We need enough committees to cover every bathroom in the school, and a different committee every class period. For seven classes, and two bathrooms of each sex for a total of four, we need twenty eight committees. Luckily, there are about sixty people in this classroom. So get into groups, and as long as we have at least fourteen committees, we can send repeats.”

People hurried to get into groups, and Katherine counted fourteen of them. 

“Okay, awesome,” she got the attention of the group. “Again, as long as you have at least one cis person and more than one trans person - of the same gender identity, you’re good. We’ve made a sign up diagram on the board, sign up for the class period and bathroom that your committee will be taking care of. Make sure you’re in the bathroom for that class period, on time, for the duration of the period. You might get taken out, but try not to do anything but sit in there. Don’t make a scene, whatever you do. Remember, we haven’t come this far to lose.”

The bell rang, and everyone grabbed their bags.

“Sign up for something if you haven’t already!” Katherine called, but the board was already filled and the students were already gone. 

-

Jack Kelly was a sneaky person, David realized. Jack had committed himself, Crutchie, Davey, and one of the football players from the other sit in to sitting in one of the boys’ bathrooms during first period and sixth period.   
Davey knew Jack wanted to talk about his idea. He wasn’t sly. And Crutchie probably wanted to talk too, based on the way the pair had been whispering to each other earlier. 

The poor football player who was going to have to deal with this. 

-

“That was an incredible speech, Jack,” Davey complimented his friend when they sat down on the bathroom floor.

“Yeah, seriously,” Crutchie squeezed Jack’s leg. “Some way of speaking.”

Zach the football player made a movement away from them that could only be described as scooting. David could tell that Zach was determined to be a good person and ally, but was still a little uncomfortable with everything that was happening. That was okay, he decided. He was trying his hardest, and that was more than a lot of people were willing to do. 

“Thanks, I was hopin’ it’d be alright. Glad you two thought so,” Jack grinned sheepishly, and Davey almost couldn’t tell if he was lying or if his blush was genuine.

“Come on,” Crutchie wrapped one arm around Jack. “You know Davey and I would think anything you say is just great.”

Davey almost choked, but recovered by turning his surprise into a laugh. “Yeah,” he coughed out, “uh-huh.”

Jack’s left arm found its way to Crutchie’s leg, and his right found its way to a good distance between himself and Davey. Zach, meanwhile, was finding his way further and further away from the other three boys. 

“About that, Davey. I know you and I talked, and Crutchie and I talked, but the three of us haven’t talked yet. We were thinkin’ a lot about the three of us, and I think,” Jack looked at Crutchie, who nodded, “I think we decided that we’d like you to join us, if you want.”

“I thought about it a lot, too. I made a lot of pro-con lists,” Davey laughed at himself, and the others chuckled too. “All of them had a lot more pros than cons,” he wrung his hands together in his lap.   
“So I think-”

Davey couldn’t even finish his sentence before the bathroom door banged open, and the sound of heavy footsteps echoed through the small room. 

“There are,” Vice Principal Snyder’s nasally voice was like nails on a chalkboard, “no girls allowed in this bathroom. I am escorting any girls in this bathroom out immediately, and taking anyone boys in this room back to their class.”

Jack, Davey, and Crutchie looked at each other, their eyes wide in panic. Zach was by their sides in an instant, which Davey would have taken a moment to admire if he hadn’t begun shaking. 

Snyder grabbed Jack and Crutchie’s arms, and stared at David before jerking his head towards the door. David, not knowing what to do besides obey the unspoken order, followed. Whether that was bravery or cowardice, he couldn’t tell. 

Snyder went back into the room, and exited carrying Zach’s backpack and writing Zach a tardy pass.   
“Get to class, boy,” he sneered, and Zach silently shot the three other boys a look of apology before taking off down the hallway. 

Snyder pulled the three of them up the three flights up the stairs, all the way up to Pulitzer’s office. He shoved them into chairs that sat in front of the principal’s desk, although the principal was not there. Seconds later, another teacher came through the door, Katherine and Smalls in tow. 

“So,” the figure of Pulitzer cast a shadow over the room as he opened the door and stepped in. “These are our little rebels, ah?” he took a seat. “They don’t look like much.”

Under the stern gaze of Principal Pulitzer, David’s blood froze. Jack’s blood seemed to be doing the opposite, judging by the way Jack tapped his fingers on David’s arm. 

“But perhaps I misjudge them. They seem persistent enough. And I should give myself more credit; I did raise one of them.”

Four students’ heads turned desperately looking for an answer to their collective question, and one head hung in shame.

“Yes, my daughter Katherine. I certainly expected better from her, but that’s none of your business. We’ll discuss this later, won’t we, darling?”

Katherine nodded dully, not looking at any of the other students. 

“Now, as for the punishment for all of you and anyone involved with this scheme-”

Pulitzer’s voice broke as the door to his office opened steadily. 

“Joseph, Joseph, Joseph. What have you done now?”

“Superintendent Roosevelt,” Principal Pulitzer’s face, for the first time in this meeting, expressed a lack of authority. “What are you doing here?”

“I was alerted to the situation at your school, and the practices you are implementing go directly against the district’s policy, Mr. Pulitzer,” Superintendent Roosevelt, despite being at least a foot shorter than Pulitzer, held all the power in this situation.   
When he turned his eyes to the lineup of GSTA members, though, his gaze softened noticeably.   
“Students, you may return to the class you are supposed to be in right now. I will speak to Mr. Pulitzer, and then address the school. I will also probably make a point of calling you all back up to meet with me later today.” He waved his hand kindly, directing them to leave. 

None of them were able to say a word as they walked back to their classes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really hope you liked this chapter! I loved it!


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finale. 
> 
> Remember that if you like this fic, it's actually @crunchie-morris 's idea, so go thank her! 
> 
> Also read "S. Roosevelt High Banner" on ao3, because it's similar to this (probably better in a lot of ways).

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How does one write a eulogy for a fic? I'm so proud of this work, and I'm so grateful for everyone who gave me the inspiration to write it and to keep writing it no matter what. Everyone who read it, and left comments and kudos, reminded me why I write.   
> This musical means so much to all of us, and I don't think I realized just how important it is until I wrote this fic. This is the story of people just like you and me who make a difference.   
> Thank you for making a difference in my life by encouraging me in my writing, and thank you for sticking with me - both through this fic and through this cheesy note.

“Would the following students please report to the office immediately: David Jacobs, Jack Kelly, Charlie Morris,” a voice boomed over the intercom later that day, “Zach Smith, Katherine Plumber Pulitzer, and Sarah Jacobs.”

Davey’s hands shook as he heard his name: his chosen name, not his birth name. He stood up and waved at Medda, who grinned back at him and shooed him away happily. 

Down the hallway, he saw Crutchie walking towards him, and the two of them fell into step quickly. 

“They called us, Davey,” Crutchie said. If it hadn’t been for his usual peppy step, Crutchie’s face might have betrayed anxiety. “By our real names, too.”

“I didn’t hear your name, though,” Davey looked at Crutchie, who rolled his eyes. 

“Charlie Morris. That’s me,” Crutchie pulled himself up the stairs using a railing. 

David nodded, and did the same. 

“Think it’s good news, then?” he asked Crutchie, his legs going numb from trembling so much. 

“God, after all this? It better be good news.”

They almost laughed, but they saw Jack, Katherine, Zach, Sarah, and Smalls standing in a straight line outside the office, parallel to the front desk. The four of them were nodding intently, but Davey and Crutchie couldn’t make out the expressions of their faces. 

“Are these the last two we needed?” the receptionist asked someone behind a door when Davey and Crutchie walked up.   
Nods all around.   
“Alright then,” she said, “go on back, and Superintendent Roosevelt will see you soon.”

Principal Pulitzer emerged from behind the door, and waved for the students to follow him. Follow him they did, back into the office where most of them had been earlier that same day. Only this time, Superintendent Roosevelt sat in the chair behind the desk. Pulitzer sat down in one of the smaller chairs to the side of the desk, and each of the students took a seat in a chair facing Roosevelt. 

“It’s my understanding,” said Roosevelt, “that all seven of you were taken out of a bathroom this morning, on account of disobedience to school rules. Is that correct?”

“Yes sir,” Jack spoke for all of them, and Roosevelt’s head turned toward him. 

“Would you say that you are the one who organized this all, young - man?” 

Jack tried not to smile at the way the question was phrased. “That depends. Which answer gets me in trouble?”

Roosevelt chuckled. “No one is getting reprimanded here.”

“Oh,” Jack nodded, “in that case, it was a group thing. We all did it. I’m GSTA president, but Crutch- Charlie motivated us, Katherine had the idea of the all-day sit in, Davey helped organize other stuff, Spot got other schools involved-”

“I see,” Roosevelt tapped his fingers on the desk. “What does your GSTA need? Resources, recognition?”

Davey blinked and shook his head, “I’m sorry, what?”

Roosevelt looked at Davey’s shocked face and chuckled. “I think that after everything that happened, your hard work and dedication to what is right deserves to be recognized. So what do you need?”

The seven students stared at each other. 

“A gender neutral bathroom,” Jack offered, “in every middle and high school in the district.” 

Roosevelt considered it, and wrote the idea down on one of Pulitzer’s note pads.   
“Done,” he decided. “Anything else, for your GSTA?” 

“If we could get name changes for everyone who needs one at this school,” Katherine recommended, “programmed into our school database, but with the students having a choice of whether or not to have that name and pronouns displayed at home, I think that would be great.”

“That’s easy enough. Within a year, we could have that done for the entire district, along with the bathrooms,” Roosevelt scribbled on the notepad more and tore off the paper. “Now, if that’s all, I’ll send you down to your classes and made an announcement.” 

“That should be all,” Jack looked around at his friends, who nodded and smiled. “Thank you sir.”

“Thank you,” Roosevelt shook Jack’s hand, and then Crutchie’s and worked his way down the line, thanking them all, “for doing what was right.”

-

They stepped out of the office, and immediately the students huddled together, grabbing at hands and laughing in disbelief and congratulations.   
Crutchie pulled Jack away from the group, and Davey tried not to look as Crutchie kissed Jack with as much eagerness and enthusiasm as possible. He grabbed Sarah by the shoulders and hugged her tightly, thanking her over and over in a whispered voice. She buried her face in his shirt, and he couldn’t tell if her convulsions were from laughter or tears or both. 

He felt a hand on his back, and turned around to see Jack’s face for only a second before being met with Jack’s lips on his own. Without thinking, Davey’s arms were pulling down on Jack’s shoulders, and their chests were pressed together. It might have been seconds, it may have been minutes, it could have been hours that they stayed like that before they heard the laughter and wolf whistles from around them. 

They pulled apart, and Davey stepped forward to say something to Crutchie, but he didn’t even have a sentence formulated when Crutchie took his face in his hand, and unexpectedly leaned in. Kissing Crutchie was nothing like kissing Jack. Kissing Jack was desperate, celebratory, and sent sparks through Davey’s entire body. Kissing Crutchie was easy, happy but not electrifying, an apology and forgiveness at the same time. 

Again, the crowd around them’s cheers forced them apart, but Jack stepped in front of them and pushed everyone else away. 

“Go to class,” Jack laughed, ignoring the shoves from Smalls and Zach.

He turned back to Davey and Crutchie, grinning like he’d won the lottery. After kissing his boyfriend, Davey had to say he understood why Jack would look like that all the time. 

“So…” Davey grimaced, and Jack laughed. 

“Davey,” Jack put his hands on each of their shoulders. “Be our boyfriend?”

“I don’t think I could say no, honestly, after that,” Davey bit his lip. 

The three of them didn’t go back to class; they felt invincible enough to get away with anything. Instead they walked outside and found a tree behind the school, a place where they could sit, talk, and kiss in the shade. They could only just hear the announcement over the school’s intercom. 

“Good afternoon, students and teachers, please pardon this interruption. This is Superintendent Theodore Roosevelt. It has come to my attention that some of our students have been displeased with a new rule that you principal put in place, and decided to protest it. Thankfully, those are the students who were brave enough to stand up for what is right, and stand up against a rule that violates district policy,” Jack kissed the boys sitting next to him on their cheeks as they silently listened to the superintendent’s words. 

“It is my belief that each generation must, at the height of its power, step aside and invite the young to share the day. You students have laid claim to our world, and I believe the future of our school district, in your hands, will be bright and prosperous. Therefore, I am pleased to announce that any transgender student in need of a name and pronoun change in your school database may request one, starting the first day of the next month. Furthermore, each school in our district will be getting at least one gender-neutral bathroom, all of which will be ready for use at the beginning of the next school year,” the three of them cheered at what they thought to be the end of the message.

“Additionally, because the rule implemented was in violation of district policy, the school board will be investigating Principal Pulitzer for his practices. If he is found to be no longer fit for the position, a new principal may be in order for this school.” Davey’s mouth fell open, and he laughed.   
“Thank you all for your time, and thank you especially to the courageous students at this school.”

“Wow,” Crutchie reached over Jack’s lap, grabbed Davey’s hand and squeezed. “Can you believe we did that?”

“No, I can’t. It’s incredible.”

“I can,” Jack smiled. “With you two participatin’, and everyone else, I’m not surprised at all.”

“Yeah, you’re sweet,” Crutchie giggled, and put his head on Jack’s shoulder. 

Davey just smiled, and his heart raced as he kissed each of his boyfriends again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... that's the end. 
> 
> Leave me a kudo or a comment if you liked it!
> 
> And also now I'm out of fic ideas so send me some on tumblr @javidblue, and come talk to me about this fic or other things on tumblr @spot-and-all-his-cronies!

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!  
> Let me know what you thought of it and what you think should happen in the coming chapters!


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